The Medical and Academic Oppression of the Sexuality of Sex and Gender Diverse People

Paper presented by Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH at the Australian Society of Sex Educators, Researchers & Therapists (ASSERT) National Sexology Conference, University of Sydney, Lidcombe, 5-6 December 2004.

Abstract

This discussion paper examines the oppression and exploitation of sex and gender diverse people by the medical and academic establishment. Many people identify as intersex, transsexual, transgender, androgynous or without sex and gender identity. These groups of people over the past 20 years have often been swallowed up and encompassed by the greater label of the queer culture. The material for this discussion is taken from literature, reports from the sex and gender diverse community and from the author’s 30 years’ experience in helping sex and gender diverse people.

Sex diverse people are those who are atypically male or female in their biological primary and secondary sex characteristics. Gender diverse people can be fluid in their sociological gender presentation. People may present with either sex and gender diversity or dysphoria, or a combination of both. For some people, sex and gender presentation does not influence their sexuality or vice versa but for others it might.

Due to the fight that sex and gender diverse people have had and continue to have throughout the world to claim their human rights, they often have to forgo their sexuality in order to avoid being pathologised as suffering from a form of paraphilia. Most societies have also sublimated the emergence of sex and gender diverse people’s sexuality in order to allow them a gradation of negotiated human rights.

There is pressure on sex and gender diverse people to present socially as heterosexual, thereby pandering to homophobia and transphobia. Sexuality identity is an integral part of a person’s ego state, allowing them to enjoy the full spectrum of the human experience. To oppress the sexuality identity of sex and gender diverse people is nothing less than an act of violence against them, which the academic and medical communities currently propagate, disseminate and profit from.

Background

In the book Gender Reversals Gender Cultures (Lang, in Ramet (ed), 1996, p193) wrote: “Within the majority of North American Indian tribes, there existed – and, in a number of instances, still exists – a cultural construction of more than two genders, allowing the individuals to either take up the gender role of the ‘other’ sex completely, or to mix the culturally defined men’s and women’s roles to varying degrees.”

She went on to say:

“Due to the cultural construction of two or more genders, Western concepts such as ‘transsexual’ and ‘homosexual’ can also not be applied to Native American women-men and men-women: a sexual relationship, for example between two individuals of the same sex, yet not of the same gender is not necessarily considered homosexual in a gender system that provides four or more genders to accommodate individuals who do not feel comfortable with the gender and gender roles assigned to them at birth, the concept of transsexualism, which was developed in a culture that only recognizes and values two genders and sexes, is not applicable.”

In Hermaphrodites and the Medical Intervention of Sex (Dreger, 1998, p177) there is an intersexed person’s story that reports:

“It took months for me to obtain…[all] of my medical records. I learned that I had been born, not with a penis, but with intersexual organs: a typical vagina and outer labia, female urethra, and a very large clitoris. Mind you, ‘large’ and ‘small,’ as applied to intersexual genitals, are judgments which exist only in the mind of the beholder. From my birth until the surgery, while I was [considered a boy], my parents and doctors considered my penis to be monstrously small, as well as lacking a urethra…Then, in the moment that intersex specialist physicians pronounced that my ‘true sex’ was female, my clitoris was suddenly monstrously large.”

This child was then involuntarily subjected to a clitorectomy for no other medical reason than the clinician’s ideas of aesthetics. The operation resulted in a less than satisfactory sex life and that person felt permanently disturbed that they were involuntarily assaulted.

Dreger comments (p 201):

“In the last two hundred years, scientists and medical doctors have come to know a tremendous amount about hermaphroditism. They know much about why some babies arrive in this world with parts that look different from other babies’ parts, and they know of [and employ] a wide variety of techniques designed to change bodies to make them look more ‘typical’. But the accumulation of this knowledge has not taken away the perception that hermaphrodites are strange and troublesome”.

In his book As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto (2000) tells the story of David Reimer. After a botched circumcision as an infant, surgeons decided to try and surgically turn Reimer into a girl. John Money, a clinician in America, then convinced Reimer’s parents to force him to be brought up as a girl. After much maladjustment Reimer eventually began to live as a male again in his teenage years.

Money, knowing that the child was very maladjusted as a female, continued to report academically that he was fine all the way through Reimer’s childhood in order to support Money’s own theory that gender performance is socialised and not genetically determined. Reimer found life very difficult as he tried to deal with what had physically and mentally been done to him and the loss of his penis, eventually committing suicide in 2004 (Colapinto 2000), (Chalmers 2004).

J Michael Bailey, Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University USA, in his book The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003), proposes that women of transsexual origin were simply misguided homosexual males. His poorly-written book, printed with the support of the academic system in the USA, outraged the sex and gender diverse community and upon investigation it was found that his research was fraudulent (Conway 2003). He had posed as a clinical psychologist whilst not being registered to do so during the research. He had also promised letters of referral for surgery to transsexual people in order to obtain their personal stories, printed those stories without their permission, and sourced his study participants largely from bars.

This book was hailed as an academic revelation but it was in fact a form of transphobia from a man ill-qualified to investigate in the field and who fraudulently produced research to fit his own theories. This book, which was printed by the National Academic Press, was very quickly exposed as unethical and fraudulent research, but the publisher failed to order its withdrawal.

Germaine Greer, a seasoned academic, in her book The Whole Woman (1998) sought to disempower sex and gender diverse people in a chapter she entitled Pantomine Dames. As the author of The Female Eunuch (1970), a pivotal piece of literature in the development of feminism, one would have expected her to make an effort to understand and appreciate the disenfranchisement that sex and gender diverse people can experience. Instead she sought to exploit them as a group to ridicule in order to propagate her own theories of how women’s history is developing.

Her ridiculing and chastising of transsexuals was done from an evident place of lack of knowledge on the subject, particularly when it came to basic biology. She still, however, seemed to think her academic status allowed her to propagate her own prejudices without having to put in research into the subject. This behaviour is typical of many academics that seek public exposure at the expense of sex and gender people’s reputations, and seek to pigeonhole them as misguided sexual perverts (O’Keefe, 1999).

We live in dangerous times as the world’s politics in many places are moving to the right. With a rise of religious influences, the law, medicine, politics, psychology, and cultural norms set back the cause of sexual freedom for many. George Bush Jr. is now in office for the second term of his American presidency, a confirmed homophobe and transphobe (CNN.com, 2004). In differing American states legal gay marriages are being dissolved by political bigots with extreme religious views. Sex and gender diverse people have little continuity throughout America of what sex they really are, with this varying from state to state. They can be regarded legally as and are often treated as homosexuals of their original birth sex; which gives them no real footing to explore their real sexuality.

With no social healthcare system, America is a place where many sex and gender dysphoric people frequently end up in the sex industry to finance their hormones and surgeries. Many get stuck in the poverty trap, being perceived as social misfits, mentally disturbed, and sexual deviants (Blumenstein 2003).

In Australia on 30 June, 2004, Mission Australia, a Christian organisation that receives government funds to provide short-term stay facilities for the homeless, obtained an exemption under section 126A of the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1977 to refuse service to non-operative transsexual women. This exemption affected three women’s refuges in Sydney: Woman’s Place, Lou’s Place and Women in Supported Housing (WISH).

The Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB) received requests for consultation by the Gender Centre, Australia’s largest assistance centre for sex and gender diverse people, and from Sex And Gender Education (SAGE), a civil rights organisation for sex and gender diverse people to be consulted on any exemption in the law. (Mission Australia 2004).

The Attorney General granted the exemption on the recommendation of the ADB without community consultation. The legal representative of the ADB told the author that the ADB had no legal obligation to consult any community no matter who they were (Meeting between SAGE, a representative of the Aids Council of New South Wales (ACON), the Gender Centre and the ADB, NSW, Australia, 2004) (Telephone conversation between author and legal representative of the ADB November 2004).

Mission Australia put its case to the ADB that it believed some of its female service users would fear that they would be raped by sex and gender diverse female persons, namely non-operative transsexuals.

The exemption was railroaded through by the ADB in secret, not informing leaders in the gender community. After the exemption was in place leaders in the gender community were told by the president of the ADB that the department was short of funds and it probably would not have funds to invest reversing the decision (Meeting between SAGE, a representative of the Aids Council of New South Wales (ACON), the Gender Centre and the ADB, NSW, Australia, 2004).

Mission Australia, with one of its patrons being a female psychiatrist, demonised transsexual people by refusing service to the most vulnerable of any of society’s unfortunates: the homeless, non-operative, probably jobless transsexual women who may have drug problems or even HIV issues. They took sex and gender issues of transsexual clients living as women and turned them into the characterisation of being potential rapists because of their own religious prejudices.

Elizabeth Riley, the manager of the Gender Centre and Norrie May-Welby of ACON, described relations between the ADB and the sex and gender diverse community as being the worst they had been for a decade (Meeting between SAGE, ACON, the Gender Centre and the ADB, NSW, Australia, 2004).

Also in Australia John Howard as the Prime Minister has almost a carte blanche manifesto with a political majority where he seeks to push the rights of heterosexuals over the rights of all other people (World Socialist Website 2004). His government seeks to prohibit gay couples from marrying their partners and adopting children from aboard, and this will include sex and gender diverse people who identify as gay in any form; however if they identified as heterosexual they would be allowed to marry and adopt (Wearing 2004).

The New Gender Recognition Bill (McNab 2004) in England only allows heterosexual transsexuals to marry after transition. Should a sex and gender diverse person refuse to divorce a pervious married partner after transition then they will be unable to change their birth certificate. The government fears the danger that they may appear to be gay and married after transition – all this from a government headed by Tony Blair who proposes to support the family establishment (Hartley-Brewer, 2000).

Discussion

The acquisition of any liberty and equality is always accompanied by stereotyping. The Jew in occupying Israel to escape displacement became the enemy of the displaced Palestinians. The wild silverback mountain gorilla in being listed as an endangered species became a zoned amusement for tourists to domesticate. Women in becoming wage-earners of the world have also become the slaves of capitalism. And so, sex and gender diverse people, in asking for free medical care from governments and insurance companies, have become medicalised and pathologised as psychiatric freaks and dysfunctional human beings.

Governments and insurance companies never give medical funds without first seeing evidence of disease. Sex and gender dysphoria are indeed very debilitating experiences that can render a person deeply unhappy and unable to function and they may even lead to suicide. Sometimes they can be resolved with psychotherapy and for the cases where that does not happen, the person may wish to undergo medical procedures to change their body to express partly or wholly another sex and gender expression.

Some sex and gender diverse people may see their condition or state of being as illness, but many do not, seeing it as sex and gender diversity. The problem now, however, is that the price that sex and gender diverse people have to pay is that they are being asked to define themselves by mainly medical validation. This has come about for three main reasons:

Firstly the medical profession got wind of a money earner – that is, treating transsexuals became very profitable and was also able to offer a considerable amount of kudos to many who sought to define themselves as experts in the field. A similar thing happened when the medical profession started to dominate the reproductive lives of women in the second half of the 19th century.

Freud and his counterparts pegged women’s mood changes as hysteria and a form of pathology. Surgeons sought to cure the natural process of the menopause by the introduction of mass hysterectomies (Pope, 2001). And women’s reproductive rights were overruled by the unethical prognoses of male doctors. Women were seen as neither intellectually nor morally capable of deciding their own fates. So In parallel the sex and gender diverse community has become the highly paying dysfunctional patient and both clinician and patient collude in a folie a deux that uses pathology to excuse choice.

Secondly feminism and masculinity studies sought to define, redefine, claim and reclaim what it was, is and should be to be male or female. Consequently the bridge of unisexism, that rose in the 20th century to find commonalities between men and women, as we move into the 21st century wavers. Fanaticism and the right wing seek to re-polarise the sexes. Governments prostitute themselves for votes by allowing religious persecution against sex and gender diverse people. Whilst governments may accept that sex and gender diversity may be due to a medical condition in some cases, the persecution they allow is on the grounds of proposed immorality.

In cases where the issues of the persecution of the sexuality of sex and gender people comes up, governments retreat into the Pontius Pilot position of we know it’s wrong to crucify you but it’s popular. Issues on sexuality are one of the greatest difficulties for any government because they fear right-wing backlashes at the ballot box and there are few votes in sexually liberated sex and gender diverse people’s rights. So committees and quangos are concocted to make sex and gender diverse people medicalised or immoral in order to make them manageable, but rarely sexually liberated.

Thirdly the sex and gender diverse political freedom lobby has blindly in desperation thrown itself into the medical model as a refuge from persecution. The cry of “We can’t help it we have a medical condition” is the stock-in-trade phrase used by some gender freedom lobbyists to ask for health funds for hormones and surgery. The phrase is also used to escape the criticism of being seen as anything other than normal. It is an acquiescence of “fitting in” by the means of a medical condition: a doctor’s note that excuses the individual’s behavior that might challenge male and female stereotypes and offend bigots.

Every month I get people coming into my consulting rooms talking about medical doctors and practitioners of psychological and psychotherapeutic therapies who have tried to dissuade the client from their desired course of sex and gender identity. These practitioners are often noted academics with outdated models of sexuality. Invariably they are driven by either philosophical exclusivity or by religious beliefs that see anything other than a bipolar model of sex, gender and sexuality as illness or moral bankruptcy. They are profoundly unaware of their ignorance and in denial about their bullying and malpractice.

Dangers for Clinicians

In the climate of today Western medical and psychological practitioners are faced with ever increasing threats of being sued for malpractice. Therefore helping people who present themselves to health practitioners with a sense of sex and gender dyphoria often becomes a process of treating by numbers according to the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) Standards of Care (2004).

The very name of the HBIGDA itself is oppressive because it assumes pathology, not diversity. If a person remains pathologised on their medical records for the rest of their lives, it leaves them with a social stigma and little confidence to have a sexuality of which they can be proud.

The DSM4 categorisation of gender dyshoria [302.85 Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults] is inept and dangerously informs a naive practitioner about how to identify a gender variance or dysfunction. It takes no account of variables like cultural components, ever changing sociological perspectives, personal development and psychodynamic exploration. It ignores that sex and gender diverse people may have a sexuality which can be something to celebrate.

The major stumbling block, however, is that medical and psychological practitioners have limited ways of seeing sex and gender expression. Clinical training does not include anthropological, cultural, and sociological perspectives on sex and gender expression. This leaves practitioners with only pathological windows to view their clients who deviate from the average sex and gender expression. This ignorance leads to oppression of variance in sex and gender expression and disempowerment of the client. It further leads to the suppression, omission and sublimation of the sexuality of sex and gender diverse people. Academia dramatically fails medics and healthcare workers in their training on sex, gender and sexuality expression.

Recent emerging law suits against clinicians working in the field of sex and gender diversity using a bipolar male and female ideology closely linked to hetrosexualism as the only true model have been inevitable. When medicine, academia and psychology play god and try to dictate the human condition to their clients it is a loaded gun that will always eventually go off in their faces. When these disciplines ignore the research of anthropologists and sociologists that teach us that there is no true sex or gender, simply an ever floating diversity arrived at through a physical, individual and sociological perspective, they ignore important variables and equations that make up part of the human experiences of sexual happiness and satisfaction.

Sex and gender diverse people often go through difficult times establishing their sex and gender identities. Part of being able to develop a whole rewarding life is to feel safe in being able to explore one’s own sexuality. Medical, psychological, and healthcare practitioners, alongside academics, can cause enormous damage to the psyche of sex and gender diverse people when they carelessly make assumptions about that client group. The denial, sublimation and ridicule of the sexuality and sexuality development of sex and gender diverse people by those professionals is nothing less than an act of violence.

Recommendations

Educators in medicine, psychology and the caring professions need to more widely educate their students about the diversity of sexuality that is separate from sex and gender diversity. They also need to consult the sex and gender diverse communities to invite them into their classroom to tell trainees about themselves, including their sexualities.

Intersex people’s genitals should no longer be mutilated after birth to fit into the artificial aestheticism of urologists and gynecologists. Intersex people need to be allowed to choose to have medical treatment and surgery if that is right for them, with all the risks plainly explained to them. The fact that surgery may result in sexual dysfunction always needs to be stated.

Clinicians would be wise never to diagnose and foist upon the client the label of gender dysphoria, because such a pronunciation will inevitably come back to haunt them at a later stage, should a client have a change of heart. Having a psychotherapist help the client explore their issues is a wise way to help those clients choose a path that is right for them. If a client wishes to label themselves as dysphoric, a clinician can support what they are describing about their own experiences. Each client needs to be fully cognisant with the personal responsibility of those choices unless they are non-compos-mentis.

The sexuality of sex and gender diverse people should not be pathologised simply because the person may have altered or is altering their body through choice. Their sense of celebration about their sexuality should be supported and celebrated, not ignorantly confused with sex and gender identity issues. An emergence and development of that evolving sexuality can be encouraged, giving the person a sense of confidence at least equal to the kind of sexual journey that ordinary people celebrate; and there are clinicians and academics throughout the world who help sex and gender people do just that in a positive and affirmative way.

Sex and gender diverse people come in many differing kinds of combinations that can include intersexed people, transsexual, transgendered, transvestite, androgynous, without sex and gender identity, and a continuum of ever changing and developing linguistic descriptions of sex and gender experience. Their exploration of their sexuality is sometimes separate from their sex and gender issues and sometimes not, but they are often at the frontline of exploring the infinite dynamics of sexuality and could wisely be respected for the journey that they make.

Meeting between Elizabeth Riley, manager of the Gender Centre, Norrie May-Welby for the Aids Council of New South Wales (ACON) and Sex and Gender Education (SAGE), a political lobbying group for sex and gender diverse people, Tracie O’Keefe for SAGE, and a representative of the Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB) of New south Wales, Australia, 22.1.2004.

Telephone conversation between Tracie O’Keefe and legal representative of the ADB November 2004.

Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, BHSc, ND, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Psychotherapist. Counsellor, PACFA registered Mental Health Professional and Naturopath In Sydney. You can get help by booking an appointment with her at Australian Health & Education Centre.

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Results may vary according to the individual.

*Bert, Plumber

“I came to see Tracie about 6 weeks ago. I was smoking 20 cigarettes a day. I was using drugs recreationally at the weekend. Six weeks on track I'm back into sports again. I am not going back to smoking ever again and I'm not going to any drugs. It completely changed my life. And I recommend it to anyone."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kevin Moran, Scaffolder

“I used to be a smoker, but I came to Tracie to quit smoking, but I don't like the word quit; well, not quite. I don’t like the word ‘quit’. You feel like you’re quitting something. I prefer the word ‘stopped’. I stopped smoking, which is a more positive term I think, and Tracie helped me to do that."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Adam, Architect

“I came to see Tracie about two months ago. I really wanted to cut down on my drinking. I had one hypnosis session and I gave up straight away. I haven’t had a drink for 2 months and I’ve been exercising every day. I guess I was what I call a night-time drinker so I never drank during the day but it was something I wanted to do when the kids went to bed. But I felt it was slipping out of control and after just one session I’m back to normal now. Everything’s great! "

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Claire, Home Maker

“I’m an alcoholic. It’s taken me a lot of time to actually admit that about myself to anyone else. I’ve tried a lot of things, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. I’ve tried programs where you live in. I did them but I went back to drinking again afterwards. But I got a lot from Tracie. She gave me ideas. I couldn’t be more happy."

Results may vary according to the individual.

* Burzin Mehta, Digital Marketer

“I came here to Dr Tracie to quit smoking. I’d been smoking for 15 years and it was really a drag on my life. I decided to take the step to quit smoking. I’ve never felt freer. I feel like the shackles have been removed, and I feel like there’s hope for me to stop smoking for the rest of my life."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kristiane Heidrich, midwife

“I came to no longer have my little cigarette at the end of the day which I loved. After one session, basically a switch has been switching in my head and I feel that no longer defines me and I no longer need it. So I’m very happy!"

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Natalie Woods, Manager

“I came to see Tracie to quit smoking. I came to two sessions. After the first session, I successfully stopped smoking but I also got to take away a lot more from Tracie than I thought I would in terms of my health and in terms of strategies going forward. So I'm very happy about what I changed in in coming to see Tracie."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Regan Howard, Drug and Alcohol Admission Officer

“Hi My Name is Regan. I came to visit Tracie two weeks ago. The purpose of me coming was to give up smoking and it was instant. Tracie was beautiful. I walked away a non-smoker. I highly recommend Tracie. I've returned and now looking at a healthy way of life. So thanks Tracie. Wonderful!"

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Chris Tearle, Manager

“I came here to stop smoking and this is my second session now. I used to smoke 3 or 4 cigarettes a day and I’ve completely stopped that now. As I said this is my second session, two weeks ago was my first one, and I haven't smoked since then. I’m really happy with the progress that I’ve had and I really want this to continue. I’m determined and focused to carry this on."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Joseph Daaud, Property Developer

“I came to Tracie to quit smoking and I can say successfully after 2 sessions I am a non-smoker. I wouldn't even have a thought of having cigarettes again. I also became less anxious. I have better vascular energy. I'm lifting heavy weights that I ever had before and everything is just a whole lot better. Thank you very much, Tracie."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Fred, Brick Layer

“I came to see Tracie about 15 days ago with a pretty serious alcohol problem, in denial, drinking anything up to 60 cans a week. I really wasn't confident in this type of thing working for me but my daughters put me on to it. I had one session for 2 hours and I haven’t had a beer in 15 days. So I'm back for my second visit and happy to stay like it."

Our Location

We Support War Child UK

We financially contribute to War Child UK, which provides life-changing support to the most vulnerable children whose families, communities and schools have been traumatised and torn apart by war.

DISCLAIMER

*Many factors will be important in determining your actual results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve results similar to anyone else’s. Because of the nature of therapy and the requirement on the part of each individual entering therapy to actively engage in the session and to carry out any additional recommendations outside the session, no guarantees can be made of results.

Testimonials*

*JJ, former long-term cannabis user

“I used cannabis every day for 36 years. I decided to make a change in my life. I came to see Tracie O’Keefe and the very next day I had a change in my life. I was able to stop using cannabis and I don’t have the same desires I had before for cannabis. I can thoroughly say that hypnotherapy has been effective for me, changing my life so I can have what I want and develop the confidence to have clean, sober relationships and thoughts.”

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Tom, former ICE addict

“Hypnotherapy changed my life. I had issues with substances, especially ICE. I tried lots of things to stop my use and it was finally through meeting Tracie O’Keefe that I’ve been strong enough to move on with my life and stop using. I feel much healthier, my breathing has improved, my life skills have improved, Everything in my life has improved.”

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Gary Stewart

"I quit smoking using hypnotherapy in 2010. I saw Dr Tracie O’Keefe for three sessions. Smoking was a big part of my life and I found that it was anchored to everything: driving, social situations. I was worried that hypnosis wouldn’t get rid of my smoking but I can honestly say after the first session it just didn’t occur to me to smoke cigarettes. So the three sessions really enforced it for me; it has been fantastic for me. I haven’t looked back since then and I’d totallyrecommend it for anyone who is thinking about giving up smoking using hypnosis."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Sage Godrie

"I’ve been working with Tracie O’Keefe for a couple of years now. I come to sessions in every 6 months or so and I’ve found Tracie’s sessions to be very, very helpful for me. I mainly get her advice as a life coach, helping me preparing my mindset for big events, attaining goals, just making the most of every opportunity really, and I found with Tracie’s help it actually helps to make things happen the way I want them to. She brings a lot of joy and she helps me to appreciate what I am about, who I am and that I have a purpose. And all the techniques are very easy to follow – they’re simple,but very, very effective."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Jenny McConchie

"I came to see Tracie because I was suffering from a long-standing anxiety problem. Since then, I’ve been listening to her Anxiety Solutions Hypnosis module recording on a daily basis and I’m feeling really terrific. I feel that my anxiety problems are a thing of the past. I really recommend to anybody suffering from anxiety that they go and see Tracie because she could really help."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Tanya Magnay Ravel

"I attended my hypnotherapy sessions with Tracie to give up smoking and I want people to have the opportunity to experience what I’ve experienced, which is the health and wellbeing for myself and my family, and my child that will be herein a few months. It’s been a life-changing experience and if you’re thinking of giving this a go, do it! Invest in it. Don’t listen to that voice in your head that tells you that it’s too expensiveor this or whatever. Make the call and book your appointment."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kate Hodges

"I came to see Tracie with a nail biting habit. I just had one session with her and I’m happy to say that the impulse seems to have gone. I feel more relaxed and calm. She gave me some homework to do which was excellent. And that was the one thing I think that I really got out of the session was not just to go away and expect one session to cure me but to actually put the effort into doing the meditationand relaxation between sessions. So I totally recommend the sessions with Dr O’Keefe – it certainly worked for me."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Collin Brown

"I came in here to get hypnotised to stop smoking. I didn’t believe in it and it actually works. I’ve stopped smoking for about two weeks now and still don’t have the urge to do it. I’m gobsmacked. So if you want to quit smoking try, it. It’s the way."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kamil Narayan, Sales Manager

"I came to see Tracie to quit smoking. I was smoking 15 to 20 cigarettes a day. And after my first session with Tracie, I stopped smoking instantaneously. I haven’t smoked for two weeks now and I’m still going strong. I love Tracie for helping me out because I wouldn’t have been able to do it otherwise.”

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Collin, Car Mechanic

"I came in to hypnotherapy and I was an ICE addict. I turned a corner and I’m never going to go back. It's a life choice. It's a great feeling to know that you are clean and sober and Tracie helped me get there. The feeling you get out of it is more than any money or any high, anything. It's just a great feeling to have your family and kids back. It's just way, way better than anything else. It's just so good.”

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kim Beach, Consultant

"I came to therapy to improve my public speaking skills and to overcome the anxiety I felt before going on stage and talking. After one session, the feeling of being sick or hyperventilating has gone and many, many other benefits and changes to my diet and personal issues have resolved themselves. I'm feeling a lot better and I'm sleeping a lot better. I'm just feeling really great and ready to conquer the world!”

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kevin, Van Driver

"I came here 2 weeks ago. I was addicted to marijuana for 5 years. Two weeks ago I came here and after that day I left and I never ever touched it again. I didn't pick up a cigarette which I have been smoking for 5 years as well. I haven't touched alcohol in 2 weeks so I feel like I've got my whole life back and I'm on the right track to going somewhere good and I just feel great.”

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Max, Plumber

"I came in to hypnotherapy to stop smoking drugs and cigarettes and it’s changed my whole life since I stopped. Since I've been here at Tracie’s clinic I’m really enjoying my life now. I've never enjoyed it as much as I have in the last 3 weeks than I have in my whole life. I never thought I’d be able to stop the drugs by myself at all, or at all entirely, but it turns out I am stronger than what I thought I was.”

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Justin Tan, Business Owner

“I initially looked up Tracie online and I researched a few places because I wanted to quit smoking. I don't know why I choose Tracie but I did and it has been amazing. It's been almost two weeks now and I’ve quit smoking. I still get a bit of temptation to want to smoke but I can control it and I have the power within me now to actually say 'No' and stop smoking. So I recommend Tracie and you should come in and give it a try."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Peter Ferrin, Construction Manager

“I was recommended to come to hypnotherapy by my doctor as I couldn’t give up the smokes. I can say now that I don’t want to have cigarettes ever. I recommend this to anybody. It’s not only going to change my life but I think it’s going to change the life of my family and people who are around me."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Sanjed, Corporate Executive

“So I came to see Dr Tracie O’Keefe for my binge drinking problem after work and going and smoking with friends after work and Tracie has helped me immensely in the last six weeks. I haven’t touched alcohol, I haven’t touched cigarettes in the last six weeks and I feel amazing, it’s very, very positive. And thanks to Tracie I have been able to make this, beautiful change in my life."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Chad McDougal, Train Controller

“My name is Chad, I came here to see Tracie to quit smoking. This is my second session and I can happily say I am a non-smoker. Looking forward to a better life in the future."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Daniel Matthews, Technical Controller

“Basically, I came in to see Tracie because I was suffering from IBS and anxiety which was basically taking control of my life and within three short visits, basically no drugs required and here I am back in the world so fully recommended and you don’t need to go and do all of this other business that everyone says you need to do, when really a couple sessions with Tracie and you’re back into life again."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Mark Lawson, Sales Engineer

“I’ve tried to give up smoking on my own on numerous occasions. My last attempt was to come and see Dr Tracie two weeks ago. After my first visit I walked out intending to never have a cigarette again. This is my second follow-up visit to re-ensure that the smoking is now gone completely. Thank you very much.

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Nedean O'Keefe, Visual Arts Teacher

“I was quite ill and my lungs were a mess. I had difficulty giving up smoking and was finding it too hard to do on my own. So I came here and got hypnotised and the minute I walked out, I was a non-smoker and I've continued to be for weeks now and hopefully for the rest of the future. It was a very good treatment."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Bradley Academic

“I came in to see Tracie as I have been through a number of fairly traumatic events. And I kind of lost my sense of purpose and way. I was drinking too much, I was very anxious and stressed and I lost all sense of direction. Pretty much one session with Tracie put me back on a really strong path and gave me some real clarity and great sense of purpose and negated all the need for intoxicants as well. She has been great!"

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Margaret Personal Assistant

“I came to see Dr Tracie O'Keefe predominantly for weight loss and alcohol consumption as I’d gained 18 kilos over a two-year period. I was feeling quite depressed. I am back in Tracie's office today after two weeks and I'm feeling amazing. I couldn't imagine I’d be feeling this good. I’ve lost 4 kilos in two weeks and after not having alcohol and caffeine, I'm very much looking forward to continuing on a clean and sober life and to see how far I can go. I really truly recommend to anybody who has issues to come and open their mind and see what's out there."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Paul Thompson, Plasterer

“I came to hypnotherapy with Tracie. I wasn’t sleeping for a long time and since I got hypnotised the first time, I’ve been sleeping very well. There were only two nights I had a little bit of a problem but I still remained calm. I always felt confident I was going to sleep whereas before I was never confident I could sleep. So it’s very highly recommended from me. "

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Jennifer, Accounts Manager

“I came to Tracie because I've been to her for another issue previously and had a lot of success so I came to see her this time because I was drinking too much red wine – anything between 5 and 7 nights a week and I wanted to stop that. I’ve had a lot of success already. In a very short timeframe, I feel really empowered and energetic already and excited about my life moving forward without any wine in it. "

Results may vary according to the individual.

*John Kamleitner, Financial Controller

“I've been a smoker for 40 years and I was talking to a friend of mine who had received some treatment from Tracie about 8 years ago. He explained to me that the treatment helped him to get off cigarettes. I thought that would be a big challenge for me because I’ve been smoking for 40 odd years. But I took that opportunity and I'm so glad I did because I tried many different methods and none of them worked but I've been here now, this the second time I've come – it’s been a 2-week program for me and it has just worked beautifully. Even people I come across now, friends and colleagues who are smokers are quite amazed with what's happened and so I've encouraged them to seek the same treatment. I highly recommend it."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Lauren Branciamore, Hairdresser

“I was a social smoker for a number of years. I’m a mum of two and it was starting really to get on my nerves that I couldn’t have a drink without my little friend – a pack of cigarettes – at the same time. So I came to see Tracie. We had a session and I can honestly say, hand on heart, I'm no longer a social smoker or a smoker of any kind."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Bert, Plumber

“I came to see Tracie about 6 weeks ago. I was smoking 20 cigarettes a day. I was using drugs recreationally at the weekend. Six weeks on track I'm back into sports again. I am not going back to smoking ever again and I'm not going to any drugs. It completely changed my life. And I recommend it to anyone."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kevin Moran, Scaffolder

“I used to be a smoker, but I came to Tracie to quit smoking, but I don't like the word quit; well, not quite. I don’t like the word ‘quit’. You feel like you’re quitting something. I prefer the word ‘stopped’. I stopped smoking, which is a more positive term I think, and Tracie helped me to do that."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Adam, Architect

“I came to see Tracie about two months ago. I really wanted to cut down on my drinking. I had one hypnosis session and I gave up straight away. I haven’t had a drink for 2 months and I’ve been exercising every day. I guess I was what I call a night-time drinker so I never drank during the day but it was something I wanted to do when the kids went to bed. But I felt it was slipping out of control and after just one session I’m back to normal now. Everything’s great! "

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Claire, Home Maker

“I’m an alcoholic. It’s taken me a lot of time to actually admit that about myself to anyone else. I’ve tried a lot of things, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. I’ve tried programs where you live in. I did them but I went back to drinking again afterwards. But I got a lot from Tracie. She gave me ideas. I couldn’t be more happy."

Results may vary according to the individual.

* Burzin Mehta, Digital Marketer

“I came here to Dr Tracie to quit smoking. I’d been smoking for 15 years and it was really a drag on my life. I decided to take the step to quit smoking. I’ve never felt freer. I feel like the shackles have been removed, and I feel like there’s hope for me to stop smoking for the rest of my life."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Kristiane Heidrich, midwife

“I came to no longer have my little cigarette at the end of the day which I loved. After one session, basically a switch has been switching in my head and I feel that no longer defines me and I no longer need it. So I’m very happy!"

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Natalie Woods, Manager

“I came to see Tracie to quit smoking. I came to two sessions. After the first session, I successfully stopped smoking but I also got to take away a lot more from Tracie than I thought I would in terms of my health and in terms of strategies going forward. So I'm very happy about what I changed in in coming to see Tracie."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Regan Howard, Drug and Alcohol Admission Officer

“Hi My Name is Regan. I came to visit Tracie two weeks ago. The purpose of me coming was to give up smoking and it was instant. Tracie was beautiful. I walked away a non-smoker. I highly recommend Tracie. I've returned and now looking at a healthy way of life. So thanks Tracie. Wonderful!"

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Chris Tearle, Manager

“I came here to stop smoking and this is my second session now. I used to smoke 3 or 4 cigarettes a day and I’ve completely stopped that now. As I said this is my second session, two weeks ago was my first one, and I haven't smoked since then. I’m really happy with the progress that I’ve had and I really want this to continue. I’m determined and focused to carry this on."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Joseph Daaud, Property Developer

“I came to Tracie to quit smoking and I can say successfully after 2 sessions I am a non-smoker. I wouldn't even have a thought of having cigarettes again. I also became less anxious. I have better vascular energy. I'm lifting heavy weights that I ever had before and everything is just a whole lot better. Thank you very much, Tracie."

Results may vary according to the individual.

*Fred, Brick Layer

“I came to see Tracie about 15 days ago with a pretty serious alcohol problem, in denial, drinking anything up to 60 cans a week. I really wasn't confident in this type of thing working for me but my daughters put me on to it. I had one session for 2 hours and I haven’t had a beer in 15 days. So I'm back for my second visit and happy to stay like it."

Results may vary according to the individual.

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